Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Play Your Part
Teletis Reliquiae, ed. Otto Hense, 2nd ed. (Tübingen: Mohr, 1909), p. 52 (tr. J.B. Bury):
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Fortune is like a playwright who designs a number of parts — the shipwrecked man, the poor man, the exile, the king, the beggar. What the good man has to do is to play well any part with which Fortune invests him. You have been shipwrecked; very well, give a fine rendering of the part 'Shipwrecked man.' You were rich and have become poor. Play the part 'Poor man' as it ought to be played.For ἐνδόξου, ἀδόξου "of high esteem, of no esteem" is more literal than "the king, the beggar".
Ἡ τύχη ὥσπερ ποιήτριά τις οὖσα παντοδαπὰ ποιεῖ πρόσωπα, ναυαγοῦ, πτωχοῦ, φυγάδος, ἐνδόξου, ἀδόξου. δεῖ οὖν τὸν ἀγαθὸν ἄνδρα πᾶν ὅ τι ἂν αὕτη περιθῇ καλῶς ἀγωνίζεσθαι. ναυαγὸς γέγονας, εὖ τὸν ναυαγόν· πένης ἐξ εὐπόρου, εὖ τὸν πένητα.
